Emmett crawled down into the spot on the grass Kaye’s patting hand had designated for him, happy to be welcome. He sat with his knees up for a few moments, watching silently as she reached for the fireflies. He could see her better now, sitting at her side, and noted with mild interest that her hair seemed different than he’d seen it before. Come to think of it, it seemed like she changed her hair a lot, kinda like Holland except sometimes the styles changed too.

After a few moments, Emmett decided to just lay back in the grass and stare up at the fireflies, his arms bent to offer slight support to his head, knees still pointed up. Kaye asked an interesting question just then, and his only immediate response was, “Huh.” He’d never really thought about it before, so he took a moment to do so. “My guess would be that they all change,” he answered. “Could be wrong, though, but that sounds more interesting to me.”

“I’m Emmett, by the way,” he added for good measure, glancing at her but not sitting up. He was admittedly a little nervous about the impromptu hang out with someone he didn’t know. The Lyra heard Marissa’s words echoing in his ear, telling him not to think so much. But he didn’t think it counted if he had to think about not thinking, did it? “This is cool,” Emmett smiled. “I’ve been at RMI since first year, but I don’t know how long it’s been since I just, like, sat back and watched the fireflies like this. It’s nice.” He could feel the nervous energy in his tapping foot against the ground, but other than an energetic antsiness, he felt relatively relaxed. Fireflies were cool like that, giving him something to focus on beside Kaye and beside himself.

“Neat?” Kaye blinked, and she gestured to the fireflies around them. No matter where people came from, what their blood status was, this was more than neat. Kaye couldn’t imagine a world where she’d... more

“Yeah, I’d like to think they change, too.” Kaye couldn’t imagine being forced to look the same all of the time. It was one of the benefits of her alopecia. She didn’t have to learn any fancy spell... more